Monte McNair has made some pretty significant moves dating back to the trade deadline last season to try and get the Sacramento Kings back into the playoffs. He landed De’Aaron Fox the most talented teammate he’s ever played with in Domantas Sabonis. He surrounded his interior scorers with volume shooting in the form of Malik Monk, Kevin Huerter, and Keegan Murray.<\/p>\n
He even made some defensive improvements on the perimeter through the draft in recent years, landing Davion Mitchell largely because of his proficiency on that end.<\/p>\n
One major area of concern that McNair has yet to seriously address is rim protection, and with the Domantas Sabonis acquisition, this feels like a deficiency the 2022-23 Sacramento Kings are just going to have to overcome rather than fix.<\/p>\n
Sabonis is one of the worst shot blockers and rim protectors at his position (center) in the entire NBA. With the expectation that Domas is going to be playing 30+ minutes in that spot every single night, there is only so much the Kings can do around him to make it work.<\/p>\n
Domas averaged just 0.3 blocks per game with the Kings last season. That’s 5 blocks \u2013 total \u2013 in his 15 games with the Kings. This isn’t a new development for Sabonis. He has never blocked more than 0.5 shots per game throughout his 6-year NBA career.<\/p>\n
In Indiana, Sabonis had the defensive luxury of playing with one of the most prolific shot blockers in the NBA today \u2013 Myles Turner. The Pacers had some really good defensive seasons during their run together.<\/p>\n
In Sacramento, Sabonis is going to be tasked with defending the rim surrounded by players like Harrison Barnes, a traditionally undersized 4 who is a zero with regards to defending the rim, and Keegan Murray, a rookie who has promising potential defensively (1.9 BPG last season) but not the kind of rim protector you can realistically expect to cover up Sabonis’ deficiencies in year one, if ever.<\/p>\n
And that just covers Sabonis’ defensive teammates in the paint. Out on the perimeter you’ve got De’Aaron Fox, a point guard with loads of defensive potential that hasn’t shown the ability to consistently keep his matchup out of the paint. Sacramento’s historically poor perimeter defense puts a lot of pressure on interior defenders, and those interior defenders do not possess the skills required to cover up their mistakes.<\/p>\n
Behind Sabonis, the Kings have some options to explore. Alex Len has historically been a decent rim-protecting big. Richaun Holmes is a solid-but-undersized defender. Neemias Queta has loads of potential here, but he’s unproven and buried in the depth chart. They are options, but you can’t feel particularly good about any of them making a tangible difference here.<\/p>\n
The good news, I guess, is that this team doesn’t need to be good at everything. Realistic expectations have the Kings as a play-in contender. Play-in contenders have serious on-court problems or they wouldn’t be play-in contenders.<\/p>\n
The question is, can the Kings defend the rim well enough? Can they defend well enough, period? Can Mike Brown figure out a scheme, or find the right personnel, so that this is just a weakness and not a season killer?<\/p>\n
This is what I’m most worried about heading into the season. I’m confident this team can score. I’m confident they can shoot. I’m even confident they can defend well enough on the perimeter if\u00a0<\/em>Davion Mitchell is starting.<\/p>\n I have no confidence in their interior defense, but will it be so bad that they can’t overcome it? Time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monte McNair has made some pretty significant moves dating back to the trade deadline last season to try and get the Sacramento Kings back into the playoffs. He landed De’Aaron Fox the most talented teammate he’s ever played with in Domantas Sabonis. He surrounded his interior scorers with volume shooting in the form of Malik […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,3],"tags":[1041],"coauthors":[308],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n